Latest Price Surge Leads to First Bitcoin Billionaires

Bitcoin reached a new high on Sunday, making the infamous Winklevoss twins the first reported Bitcoin billionaires.

According to The New York Times, the twins (known for suing Facebook founder Mark Zukerburg, alleging that he stole the idea for the social networking site from them) invested $11 million into the cryptocurrency in 2011.

As reported by Business Insider, citing data from Markets Insider, the digital asset reached a new high of $11,826.76 on Sunday, after recovering from big price falls last week — making the Winklevosses’ investment now worth over $1 billion.

Block chain technology was developed by an unknown person or persons known by the alias Satoshi Nakamoto.

According to CNN Money, bitcoins can be used for anonymous transactions, and are “easy and cheap” because they are not regulated by any one government.

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The lack of regulation has attracted many investors from around the globe.

In fact, Tech Crunch reported that several Latin American economies are looking towards Bitcoin as a way to fight government inflation.

Reuters reported that Venezuela has plans to launch it’s own oil based cryptocurrency.

While some see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as an asset similar to gold, others worry that the digital tokens have little practical use.

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Regardless, along with the Winklevoss twins, recent gains in value for Bitcoin have created new millionaires for those that became involved in the still new technology in it’s infancy.

Many of those investors simply purchased Bitcoin while it was at a low price, while still others became “miners” — described by CNN Money as folks using their computers “to solve complex math puzzles,” which is essentially how Bitcoin are created.

According to Value Walk, other notable Bitcoin investors include Yifu Guo, an NYU student who launched the first Bitcoin mining company Avalon; Dave Carlson, the founder of MegaBigPower, a mining company based out of his basement; and Tony Gallippi, the creator of the first Bitcoin processor.

As for the Winklevoss twins, according to Business Insider, they have also invested in Gemini, an exchange platform whose website describes it as “next generation digital asset platform built for businesses and investors.”